in washington. to see harry reid and mitch mcconnell andjohnboehneractuallystanding together there in the driveway is a very rare feat. and i'm not going to get out there and say happy days are here again. >> okay. what i do want to ask you about, dana, this confederacy of takers article you wrote about how president obama's opponents have come up with a way to avoid the fiscal cliff. there's a large number of patriotic americans mostly from states won by mitt romney who have petitioned the white house to let hem secede. you're saying let them for one big reason. >> well, yes. i'd hate to lose these states because our country has 50 states for a good reason and we like our fellow americans. but strictly as a budgetary matter, if you look at the states that supported mitt rom if i, a lot of those states that want out of the union whether in the south, some in the plains and the mountain states, these are the ones that take far more in federal spending than they give tax dollars. so if you similply lop them off the union we would have a far more prosperous nation. but we'd have